Nuclear Engineering ETDs

Publication Date

5-1975

Abstract

In radiation damage problems, it is desirable to know not only the neutron and gamma ray fluxes but also the energy deposition due to those fluxes. Following the recent availability of coupled neutron-gamma ray, multigroup-multitable cross sections and associated fluence-to-KERMA factors, an automated method has been developed for obtaining the energy deposition in a material region due to local neutron and gamma ray fluxes. Cross section sets which combine neutron and photon transport as well as a production matrix for neutron-induced gamma rays are used in the transport calculation. Thus in one discrete ordinates transport calculation, the energy deposition from incident neutrons, gamma-rays, and neutron-induced gamma rays in the system is obtained.

The forward (real flux) transport heating method developed in this paper is applied to find the neutron and gamma ray heating in the copper coil of a conceptual LASL design of a controlled thermonuclear reactor (CTR). In this particular case the gamma ray heating is four times that of the neutron heating. A test problem is used to compare the adjoint transport heating method to the forward method. It is shown that the two methods obtain reasonable and compatible results. However, the adjoint calculation is more suitable for problems containing a changeable source spectrum and a fixed geometry, whereas, for a problem with a fixed source spectrum but a changeable system design, the forward calculation is more appropriate.

These methods would be ideally suited to preliminary parameter studies for system design prior to more exact and more costly Monte Carlo calculations and detailed system testing. The heating methods are shown to be reliable, inexpensive, and easy to use.

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Degree Name

Nuclear Engineering

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Nuclear Engineering

First Committee Member (Chair)

James A. Horak

Second Committee Member

Henry A. Sandmeier

Third Committee Member

James E. Cambell

Fourth Committee Member

Robert Leroy Long

Fifth Committee Member

Stanley Elmer Logan

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